Council’s London Road remodelling has raised a few controversies.

Filling in the pedestrian underpass was one, but this has released space needed for better pavements and bus stops.

The planning team for the remodelling has been good not only at planning and implementing it, but also at consulting stakeholders before each of its many phases. The senior transport planner has been professional, understanding and courteous at every stage.

Ron Lewis’ intemperate letter (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, July 16) is the opposite. He abuses council planners as “idiots”, “village idiots” and “country bumpkins”.

Maybe he knows better than the Hebrew proverb: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger”.

Ron wants London Road made “better for traffic movement”.

Banning certain right turns from London Road and Old Road will make some movements more difficult, but cars in the middle of the carriageway waiting to turn right can delay other traffic, which presumably sometimes includes Ron in his car. What is his alternative?

He wants some buses re-routed away from Headington. But this would make buses less direct, less attractive and thus less able to reduce car use.

This would increase car traffic and poisonous emissions including nitrogen dioxide, which in Headington already exceeds safe limits.

Building more space for more cars rarely solves traffic problems. More often, it increases the problem for the next generation of planners.

Improving congestion-reducing, emissions-reducing alternatives to car use is a better way to increase space for such car journeys as really are essential.

Hugh Jaeger, Chairman, Bus Users UK Oxford Branch, Park Close, Oxford